-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The defense for Charles Taylor is expected to submit its counter-recommendation Thursday after prosecutors said the former Liberian president deserves an 80-year sentence for a war crimes conviction .

Taylor was found guilty last month of aiding and abetting war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone 's civil war .

`` Should the trial chamber decide to impose a global sentence , 80 years ' imprisonment would be appropriate , '' said Brenda Hollis , chief prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone .

In the statement last week , the prosecutor said the sentence reflects the gravity of the crimes .

`` But for Charles Taylor 's criminal conduct , thousands of people would not have had limbs amputated , would not have been raped , would not have been killed , '' Hollis said . `` The recommended sentence provides fair and adequate response to the outrage these crimes caused in victims , their families and relatives . ''

Last month 's landmark ruling by the international tribunal was the first war crimes conviction of a former head of state by an international court since the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after World War II .

Taylor , 64 , was found guilty of all 11 counts of aiding and abetting rebel forces in a campaign of terror that involved murder , rape , sexual slavery , conscripting children younger than 15 and mining diamonds to pay for guns .

Prosecutors accused Taylor of financing and giving orders to rebels in Sierra Leone 's civil war that ultimately left 50,000 dead or missing . His support for the rebels fueled the bloody war , prosecutors said .

Prosecutors , however , failed to prove that he had direct command over the rebels who committed the atrocities .

There is no death penalty in international criminal law , and he would serve out any sentence in a British prison .

Taylor has been a pivotal figure in Liberian politics for decades , and was forced out of office under international pressure in 2003 . He fled to Nigeria , where border guards arrested him three years later as he was attempting to cross into Chad .

His trial was at the special court for Sierra Leone in The Hague , Netherlands . U.N. officials and the Sierra Leone government jointly set up the tribunal to try those who played the biggest role in the atrocities . The court was moved from Sierra Leone , where emotions about the civil war still run high .

Taylor becomes the first former head of state since Adm. Karl Doenitz , who became president of Germany briefly after Adolf Hitler 's suicide , to be convicted of war crimes or crimes against humanity by an international tribunal .

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was tried by an international tribunal , but died before a judgment was issued .

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The former Liberian president was convicted of war crimes

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Prosecutors say he deserves an 80-year sentence for the conviction

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Taylor aided fighters in a civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone